What does “Moneyless Society” mean?
Who we are as an organization and what we champion
Moneyless Society is a 501c3 non-profit organization and collective of passionate people/volunteers, that aim to create an alternative community of systems and structures, and eventually create a working, self-sustaining community.
Our name came from our founder, Matthew Holten, who wrote the book entitled, “Moneyless Society: The Next Economic Evolution,” and the movement/organization grew from there.
Ideally, we envision a city/model in which residents/owners/contributors (or whatever titles are chosen) will not need money to live or operate within the community/city. This will enable the residents of these experimental communities to essentially “opt-out” of and thereby largely bypass the outside monetary and socioeconomic system of the world today — capitalism. We have successfully completed step 1 of working towards this goal, by forming our 501c3 nonprofit organizational status that secures us as a legal entity, umbrella organization, and rough framework for achieving these goals.
The enormous task of eventually building communities and equitable, self-sustaining business models involves myriad people and projects working together to intentionally design and create social and economic structures that provide any and all needed energy, food, water, housing, common household goods, services such as healthcare, childcare, or education, and more.
This vision is also generally in alignment with transitioning to what many people would call a “resource-based economy,” as described by Jacque Fresco of The Venus Project and Peter Joseph of the Zeitgeist Movement.
(We will write more about this economic system in the months and years to come, and how our goals and transition strategies intersect and align with this model.)
One of our main goals is to create a self-sustaining community demonstration/model with at least 10 active participants.
To this end, we are actively exploring and creating business models that can and will generate revenue, in order to gain funding and necessary legal structure, business history, financial support, research and create these physical communities in which people will actively live, work, and participate in the management and growth of the communities themselves.
To be clear and 100% upfront — yes, this process involves business and making money. Being an organization titled “Moneyless Society” we understand the irony of this, and we know there will be plenty of people that will find fault with this aspect of our organization. We are prepared to take whatever ridicule this will undoubtedly generate. Regardless of what people who are not aligned with our values and/or business models will say, we will continue to pursue our long-term goals of building self-sustaining, resilient communities in order to create new, equitable social and economic models moving forward into the future.
Also— we are not saying that this is the only way to achieve these goals. We have chosen to take the path of forming viable businesses because we see providing a living wage to the individuals devoting their (often full-) time and efforts as the fastest and most viable route to these projects’ completion. While we do seek and utilize as much volunteer-help as we can, we are also interested in actively creating self-supporting business models so as many people as possible can devote their full-time efforts toward creating these new community models — without having to hold outside jobs.
In that respect, we are committed to forming business structures, like cooperatives, that lift up and empower disadvantaged and impoverished communities.
Cooperatives help build and implement commonly-owned resources, and develop community resilience that benefits everyone involved. We are working to form worker-owned cooperative businesses in conjunction with self-sustaining systems for providing energy, food, water, housing, clothing, and more, in communities around the United States and worldwide.
We are also 100% committed to fighting climate change, developing and implementing carbon sequestration technologies, utilizing sustainable energy and farming practices, and the like. For this reason, regenerative agriculture and renewable energy technologies, will likely be foundational aspects of many of our business models. It is also our goal and intention to collaborate with other individuals and entities in the regenerative agricultural, renewable energy, and drawdown sector, such as farmers, equipment manufacturers, renewable energy suppliers, and more.
Additional themes/aspirations of these self-sustaining business models include but are not limited to:
- Automation technology
- Robotics
- P2p
- Open-source information, products and technologies
- 3d printing — both small and large scale (houses, buildings)
- Modular designs
- Carbon sequestration/drawdown technologies
- De-growth
- Circular economy
- Upscaling
- Marketing/promotion
- Outreach/media
- Donations & merchandise
Like any organization or entity, Moneyless Society will continue to grow and evolve over time. We will keep you updated on the most recent developments and are excited to be able to portray our progress to you and others along on this journey.
If you have questions, or would like to inquire about working with the team at Moneyless Society regarding any of these projects, or would like to be a guest blog poster for our publication here on Medium, please drop us a line at: Contact@moneylesssociety.com and/or follow us on our various social channels here.
Don’t forget to read Moneyless Society: The Next Economic Evolution!
Thank you and we look forward to continuing the discussion with future articles!
— The Team at Moneyless Society
